From Seoul to the Kerby Centre: Carol Wallace’s story of starting over

Carol Wallace didn’t follow the usual path.

While many people teach English overseas in their 20s, Carol took the leap in her 50s, leaving behind the familiar to face uncertainty, and chasing a dream to see the world.

Teaching in South Korea, Carol found more than just adventure.

Carol spent 22 years living on the island before deciding to come back to Calgary, a city she had called home before and one that made her feel grounded again. “At the time, Calgary was seeing an influx of newcomers from other countries, and I wanted to be part of welcoming them,” says Carol. She has always loved studying culture, and teaching people what they need to know to build a life in Alberta felt like the right fit.

Her first trip to teach English in Seoul ran from 2008 to 2009. She had just lost her contract as an employment counsellor and wasn’t sure what came next, so she decided that if she didn’t go then, it might never happen. At the time, she was on welfare. Even so, the trip was carefully planned, with her airfare and accommodations arranged and someone there to pick her up when she landed. “It was a calculated risk, not a leap in the dark,” says Carol.

That first year in Korea became something she describes as deeply healing. She spent her time with teachers from Australia and France, immersing herself in culture the way she had once studied it at university, from the women of different societies to the Inca and shamanism. “After going through a divorce, I hadn’t loved myself for a long time,” said Carol. In Korea, surrounded by people who made her feel valued, she found that love again.

Her time overseas wasn’t without real fear. During one stretch, tensions with North Korea meant she and other teachers had to register with the Canadian embassy and prepare an evacuation plan through Japan. “I remember a drill day when the streets went silent and air raid sirens sounded, and how careful everyone had to be about what they said in messages home,” Carol remembers. Her time in Korea was nearing an end, though, for reasons she hadn’t anticipated.

When she returned home, the economy had shifted and everything felt harder. She got involved with someone she says she shouldn’t have, and used a second trip back to Seoul as a way to start over. That trip was cut short after six months, when heavy bleeding sent her to international doctors in Seoul who couldn’t give her answers, at real expense. She decided to fly home rather than keep paying for care that would be free in Canada, and was assessed in Cranbrook. The diagnosis was endometrial cancer, caught early enough that it was removed without the need for chemotherapy. She hoped to return to Korea again, but by then a new age cap on teaching contracts, for anyone over 55 or 60, closed that door.

Carol has now been teaching at the Kerby Centre for four years, and the shift from employment counselling to teaching seniors suits her. “The reward is watching people’s minds open. I feel like a kind of messenger,” she laughs. Teaching seniors comes with its own challenges, from hearing and vision difficulties to pronunciation, but she says reaching even one person makes it worthwhile.

She’s found her senior students to be some of the most fascinating people she’s taught, each carrying a lifetime of careers and stories. “I’d like to write a book someday, collecting those experiences,” says Carol. In the meantime, her classroom conversations have taken her across the world without leaving Calgary, from farming in Iran to farming in Venezuela and Mexico.

For Carol, the Kerby Centre has become a second home, a safe and friendly place where she has taught some of the same students for three years running. Her son recently visited for the first time and was surprised to learn the building he thought was an old hospital was actually Mount Royal University, where he works.

Now a volunteer English teacher there, Carol is helping senior newcomers build language skills and confidence, all while continuing to learn from them in return.

Carol’s advice is simple: “Age is just a number. If you believe you can do something, you would be surprised what’s possible, even in your 50s and beyond.”